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REPORT FROM THE FRONT LINE/iOS and Classical Music Composers
Hi, I have been frequenting a classical music forum with the agenda of presenting iOS as a viable composing platform for young classical composers on a budget without an orchestra. It is very different from the welcoming feeling you get here, but there seem to be many that at least open their minds a little to the changes going on about them. This is a post from that forum and my response. Thought some members might be interested on where I missed out on my listing of pros and cons for the case of iOS.
HIS POST
I have already responded to this thread, but after thinking about it more it really comes down to the kind of composition that someone is interested in doing. As far as I can tell, an iPad does not have adequate connectivity to a lot of other kinds of hardware that would be useful in for studio composition, especially when it comes to connecting microphones and using analogue equipment. If a composer who is only just starting out with an interest in studio composition, particularly when it comes to writing commercial music, writing music for video games and other things like that, an iPad will be able to introduce someone to composing with a DAW but with severe limitations that could set someone's knowledge of the software back when transferring to an actual studio context. Keyboard shortcuts, connecting various equipment, working with microphones and speakers and similar skills are just as important as having a good knowledge of the software. Of course, once someone is actually in the studio, they will be working with expensive equipment anyway; thankfully, there are courses and institutions that provide the hands on experience needed, people can apply for internships with professionals, people can get closer to the goal of being a composer in that kind of studio in that way over time whilst accumulating the knowledge that will be of most use to them.
For people who only wish to compose as a hobby, iPads, as much as or probably more than laptops and other easily available technology, are easy to use but have limitations that people simply have to live with. People I know who enjoy composing using software like Cubase as a hobby are content with the sampled sounds they can get as far as I am aware, and none of them use iPads due to the impracticality of its limitations versus what they already have access to on their computers. And I am pretty sure many people at some point go out to get a laptop or desktop computer.
MY RESPONSE
Thanks for your considered response, all very valid concerns, but also some misconceptions I hope I can address. Let me say first that it is probably unlikely ( though possible) that the iPad will supplant the desktop as the gold standard if you don't have your own orchestra or a recording contract. Until the heat dissipation issue is solved the tablet will not hold enough RAM and ROM to really do it to the highest standard. However, things change rapidly in the world of technology. And desktop DAWs were rejected at the outset as limited and inferior to a studio setting. But the software and libraries steadily improve until now you have a desktop instrument like the Joshua Bell violin which cuts the difference between acoustic and virtual even closer, though some will never accept that an android will one day claim "human" rights. The development of MPEs is transforming the way music is made with hardware like the Roli Seaboard which breaks the bounds of the conventional, perhaps behind the times in terms of musical evolution, keyboard. I will never abandon the traditional keyboard, but kids will now grow up with something that can be even more expressive than our cherished piano. Even the qwerty keyboard will become a dinosaur when more subtle technology allows for greater depth in information transmission than the single parameter keystroke. It is coming and cannot be stopped. Even "serious" Music will develop in unexpected ways. The stalwarts will die sooner or later and their conventions will transmute to the new just as diehard harpsichordists had to acknowledge the piano was more expressive. I'm sure there are some who are still screaming "Never!" As they twang away at one volume.
Regarding connectivity, there is absolutely no problem hooking up microphones and acoustical, electronic instruments to the iOS platform. Audio interfaces are accurate, inexpensive and versatile.
There you are behind the times, I believe.
The most expert iOS users use a combination of iPad ( even iPhone) to sketch their ideas to finish on a desktop. It is a beautiful new synergy that allows composers to work anywhere, anytime. As to iOS knowledge being a detriment to learning desktop, they are getting more and more similar. Many iOS fanatics don't like this trend and would prefer a more evolutionary direction to the technology. A direction that would modularize music creation and production to the extent that the traditional DAW is replaced by something brand new with different and more far reaching capabilities.
Yes, the fortunate talented few will wind up with top engineers in a recording studio, but the line between professionals and hobbyists is blurring thanks to technology. Even Charles Ives as a "hobbyist" supported his brilliance with a successful insurance business. No "serious" music moguls took him seriously in the beginning, if I am not mistaken. Those who do not embrace change will be crushed by it, if only through attrition. To have a Ludditical approach (and I am not saying you are such, Shirime, quite the opposite. I am only addressing your response because you come across as a thoughtful, fair and open minded fellow). Music is global, microtonal, often devoid of complex harmonies, for most of the world. These musics are equal to the best western society has to offer. Hopefully "classical, serious" music will always be listened to, played and appreciated. But if it does not evolve with the times to connect the past with the future it will be doomed, IMHO, to wither on the vine, supported by a dwindling ruling class who would have never abandoned the carburetor if they had a choice.
ANOTHER POST
No, absolutely not. So far I haven't found anything that suits me better than pencil and paper. For engraving, I think it would be useful to see something like an iOS/Android version of LilyPond or SCORE, but not for composition itself. As soon as there is a software for anything, it will have its limitations and that causes some interesting problems when it comes to creativity. One of my biggest problems from using an object-based software such as Sibelius was that I sometimes got into a bad habit of composing music I knew how to engrave easily on the computer, rather than really compose the things I want to compose. Falling into these compromises affected me quite negatively because the only other solution was to really work against the software, putting a lot of effort into making it do what I want it to do. Not my idea of a good time. Unfortunately it seems like most scorewriters are moving towards the WYSIWYG object-based model (Finale, Sibelius, Dorico, MuseScore etc), which hinders rather than helps the engraving process, although it's easy to compose with them if one chooses to limit oneself to writing music that is easy to write on them.
Having a DAW on an iPad sounds cool though (it would still be limited, I guess!), but I probably wouldn't use it because I prefer the electronic music studio I have access to at uni...................
ANOTHER RESPONDENT
I agree with this as well. The only real use for digital media is to create neat and presentable scores.
MY RESPONSE TO ANOTHER, MORE OPENMINDED MEMBER
(Edited)
But I am willing to take some shots to recommend iOS music making to young composers for the following (pro) reasons:
1/ affordability. Some have already taken issue with this on this forum. "I can get a used PC and free notation software for $200.
To which I say, go right ahead. You always get what you pay for.. A used iPad 4 will cost $150 ( plus a $50 Apple camera connection dongle to connect the iPad and midi keyboard), a used Casio hammer action Privia keyboard $250, all the apps you need for decent instruments and recording $250 if you have good advice on what to get ( much less if you go for free sound fonts, of which there are many and a $10 recording app). If you have an iPad and an ok midi keyboard with/ or have outboard speakers you are in the game for $300 or significantly less.
2/ portability. You can input notes directly on most apps directly on the iPad. All DAW sequencers on iOS have drop down keyboards. With a pair of earbuds you can work on your compositions anywhere, anytime.
3/IOS is just coming into its own with great improvements in connectivity, stability, FX, high quality instruments, sophisticated DAWs ( recording studios) and availability of help at the audiobus.us forum. The main iOS forum and very open contributors who welcome beginners. No question is too basic.
4/workflow is vastly improved with touch and go recording. No more mouse.
5/it is very hip. iOS technology appeals to young people and gaining in credibility as more and more fully mastered albums are released on the platform.
6/ quick learning curve. A computer literate teenager can be recording in hours.
Cons:
1/ desktop has more RAM and ROM. Until heat dissipation issues are addressed the memory capacity is limited on tablets.
2/ instruments are still more realistic on desktop because of larger sample sizes and extensive articulated orchestral instruments available. However, they are a lot more expensive. A lot!
3/ bias of codgers against something new ( I am 70 and a codger myself)
4/ software has had many years lead on desktop compared to iOS, is more stable and often has more depth for a professional engineer. But I am addressing young composers who want an affordable, fun platform that is cutting edge technology.
I hope you find the above a fair sorting of pluses and minuses. Here is an example. This movement was completed in approx. 15 hours "composing" to "completion". A perfectionist who is not improvising the material on the spot would, naturally, take much more time. PLEASE listen with headphones or good monitors.
Comments
(I'm going to use the pronoun "he" out of years of bad habits).
It makes me laugh to read: "I sometimes got into a bad habit of composing music I knew how to engrave easily on the computer, rather than really compose the things I want to compose."
I have developed the bad habit of easily making and layering sounds. In fact the sounds I hear typically inspire the final results. The resulting music is more discovered than "composed" . I find this approach very rewarding without ever asking anyone to listen to the results.
This poor soul scribbles exacting musical instructions using a pencil (that does imply erasing and revising). Then he must assemble these instructions to be re-copied as individual parts (probably not using a pencil but using "engraving" software) and a group of musicians assembled before he gets to hear what he has created.
I know there are gifted musical minds that can "hear" printed music by looking at a score. That level of musical intelligence requires years of practice to perfect matching notes to sounds.
I like the instant gratification of IOS music making vs the ego gratification of getting every detail documented before you hear the assembled layers of sound.
There is also a level of controlled precision available using synthesized sounds that goes beyond notated musical scores.
To each his own.
I'm a big pen&paper fan when it comes to software design - despite a ton of app 'tools' pretending to ease that process...
(different domain, but I can sense what that dude was about)
I could do all my editing with a release of BIAS Peak from y2k - using the 'outdated' mouse.
(programmed the wheel to zoom in/out, 'push on dial' to set selection as loop bounds and right button to start/stop playback)
Works like greased lightning to grab (precise) sections from a file that can be added (as regions with smart auto-naming) to various playlists. Or exported as single files to a loop/phrase collection, etc etc.
Of course a mouse is an IOS nogo - but you can easily fake it's functionality on a tablet...
Mouse action and keyboard modifiers are essential to productivity.
It doesn't matter how it looks, but how it WORKS.
Pinch is cool for pictures, but a royal pain on an audio timeline. Sometimes you need the guts to break Apple's rules
Imho there is absolutely no technical limit in IOS devices for even demanding jobs.
(you could still resort to offline rendering anytime)
Ages ago when sample streaming was introduced by Gigasampler I made a test with a Celeron 300 CPU (256 MB of RAM) connected to a fileserver over a 10Mbit line and it played that remote 1GB piano flawless.
A current iPad represents more than 5 times the processing power, let alone network and disk access rates.
IOS started out really smart - as the constant mentioning of classics like Animoog, SamplR and the like prove. Audiobus was a kind of revelation to me when it was first introduced. Those days I had very high hopes on the platform as a productivity tool.
It felt like evolution gaining momentum - which imho has decayed significantly since then.
@Max23. Not sure whether to disagree or not. I think @McDtracy is merely responding to a point of view that knows only one right way and is making the case for alternatives as you are. There is definitely a bias on the other bank of the river. I know McD admires our intrepid @kuhl's classical work, written in his head, then on paper or in a notation app. But Kuhl is an outlier, I believe. A rocker with a fugal imagination. An iOS man with his feet firmly in the world of classics. His beautiful quartet's first movement would not be dismissed out of hand by most classical composer diehards, it is too accomplished for that, but a Mahler adaptation with a Model D substitute? ANATHEMA!
Strangely I have pmd one of these forum members ( who posted her tweaking of a vst piano) only to find out she has a 12.9 strictly used for writing music. I am trying to coax her into buying ThumbJam! They are not all birds of the same feather, but there certainly is a prevailing wind. Many are proud they would never consider desktop music production, and iOS? Fuggedaboudit!
As to "found" and "intentional" music, all ways are valid, but you don't have to be a Mozart to tune into a stream of consciousness that goes beyond even picking a number of chords. I am far, far from genius level, and light years from an ubermensch like M, but I wrote my Synthony, each movement,by only picking a key it might be in (might), and saying a short prayer for success. The effort was just getting myself to play with the belief it would all work out somehow.
Max, I cannot even play Happy Birthday by ear without making mistakes, yet each time I sat down to create my Synthony I improvised entire movements or long sections without a clue as to what the result might be. Oh yes, I did set the metronome for different tempos. For the fourth movement I actually had to sit down for an hour after playing it to analyze the chord changes and write them out ( and they are all really simple chords, the most complex being a sus4). That movement of six minutes I played in one go. The first movement in two sections, one rhapsodic and one Glassian. The rhapsody was a one off. I fiddled with the P.Glass part cause it was difficult to play the repetitions at high speed. The 2nd and 3rd movements were both one offs. So in twenty four minutes of music I actually attempted to "compose" a two or three minute section which could be the weakest part of the whole deal. I swear to you this was my experience.
I guess you could make a case that I have spent fifty years noodling on the keyboard in preparation for this type of experience and that what I improvised was based on those thousands of playing and practicing hours, but I can hardly even remember what I played in Synthony No.1 after listening to it at least thirty times or more, and I haven't a clue whether I can ever create a Synthony No.2, nor do I have any idea what it might be.
For me it was found as much as stumbling on an overstuffed wallet in the street. I would just like to know who to return it to!
Thanks for your thoughts as they are always well considered and reasoned,
that is the first classical piece i learn't to play properly on the piano. Took a while.
@Max23 By trashcan you meant soundcloud, right?
It’s OK to compose with pencil & paper but not an iPad. I wish I had my iPad and it’s apps when I was a music major. That would have been a huge help.